In recent years, I’ve really tried to avoid “bashing” other people’s writing. I write tons of articles on a weekly basis and, admittedly, I’m wrong just as often as I’m right. And in the vast amount of words I’ve written, I guarantee I’ve used some really dumb phrases to try to prove my points. If someone wanted to pick apart my articles and write think-pieces on stupid things I’ve said, I’m sure he or she could write a book. So, I really try not to come down on other writers too hard.

There have been white rap stars before, and white artists who use rapping in a pop framework, but, in effect, Macklemore is the first contextually post-black pop-star rapper. He is a harbinger of cultural and demographic seismic shifts long in motion. His success has taken place largely outside of the traditional hip-hop ecosystem, though his songs have crept onto hip-hop radio, an acknowledgment of their ubiquity and of the diversity of the listening audience.

“Contextually post-black pop-star rapper” is a group of words that don’t make any damn sense together. I don’t know if Caramanica just jumbled words together that he thought sounded provocative or not, but “post-black pop-star rapper” sure sounds troll-y. And I’m definitely not putting that past a guy who once said Nicki Minaj was the most influential act in Hip-Hop right now.

I think Caramanica’s argument is that Macklemore is a rap act that’s been able to find success outside of the confines of rap radio or rap circles (even though he’s always gotten blog love) (although Will.i.am is still sort of a rapper and reached his pinnacle of fame outside of rap radio) (even though Kid Rock considered himself a rapper) (even though who gives a sh*t this is a stupid conversation to even have)(I’m pissed I’m even talking about this because some guy wrote some dumb words together to get this exact reaction out of me).

I have a few questions for Caramanica:

1. Was there a pre-Black rap act? Or just a Black rap act?

2. Are there any post-White rap stars?

3. Can “post-Black” be applicable to any other walk of life? Was Larry Bird a post-Black NBA player? Am I doing this right?

4. Seriously, what the f*ck does this mean?

Don’t worry, though, Caramanica. Your words are not forgotten because we have the USA Today to thank for the ambiguous-but-I-still-feel-like-I-should-be-offended sentence du jour.

The USA Today called Best Man Holiday a “race-themed” movie. Because it has Black people in it. I also don’t know what this means.

Maybe I’m dumb. Maybe I don’t anymore understand how to react to people who don’t understand Black people. Maybe there are perfectly reasonable explanations for these phrases.

It’s getting out of hand, and I firmly believe that the only solution is start jacking chains again. If white folks aren’t rocking chains, then we need to make that shit cool again, so they’ll start doing it too, so we can get to snatchin’.

i’m all for context and relativity but this is bullshit to the highest degree. even using the term post-black makes no sense on any level it could be. does this make Vanilla Ice black-adjacent? Serch black-tangential to the Afrocentric era? then there’s the pop-star aspect of it. rap is pop music; it may be America’s secret love that’s an open secret, but its popularity cannot be mistaken.

i still disagree with the man’s statements/ i agree with the article. nick you are right about em but he doesn’t owe anything to death row, wtf? lol but he choose to always acknowledge the culture that influenced him as did beastie boys. but where i disagree is that, even if macklahore only raps about white ppl problems, he is still using an artform that was developed by BLACK artists. i don’t give a fuck if hez rapping mary had a little lamb, if hez rapping at all, hez not “post black” anything.

Bruh, I’ma be completely honest. There are TOO many big ass words used in this kind of context for me to really understand. The words these solid-tossing fools keep using annoys me, like they’re trying to show just how well-formed their vocabulary is at the expense of the general reader. They eat some nice sushi and go “OH THIS CHICKEN COMBINES THE ORIENTAL STYLING OF PREFECTURAL JAPAN WHILE GINGERLY ACCOSTING MY EUROPEAN SENSITIVITIES” its like a slick condescending inside joke that never ends. How is somebody supposed to learn from something like this? So yeah, if somebody wants to put this in normal speak i’m open to listening.

@Jay Greene 1) I’m not saying he’s right per se, just saying that this was my interpretation of his argument 2) BEP may not have a huge black following now, but BEP, Pitbull, and Flo Rida all came up initially in hip-hop channels (Pitbull was on songs with Twista and Lil Jon) before crossing over. This is not the case with Macklemore. Macklemore came up w/in a predominantly white scene, and crossed over.

Nah strong black men still put fear in people heart. It’s mainly the ones who want to fit in in suburban culture that nobody respect. Just the other day I had this white shook for yelling “open the door nigga” to my neighbor who is black. I didn’t get in his face, I didn’t yell, all I said what “Say what?” and he apologized like 10x and explained himself. Point is people know who and who not to fuck with.

I ain’t black, but i still see the fear in their eyes when i’m around. Being a latino in 99% white workplace, i’m able to claim racism and prejudice a lot easier LOL. But forreal, when i’m in a hallway, i make eye contact and they look to the ground quickly – almost every time. Don’t bother me tho, i just laugh at ‘em. All that to say this: they still scared.

I get you Gee & thought the same but I personally think it’s cause now two black people cannot agree with each other to fight for ‘the’ cause & the black people who now make it in the world, forget about the black ‘people’ unless they want some creative arts & sports shit because the black is still at the bottom. That’s why I don’t agree with celebs who sing songs of the poor (even if they did come from that) only whenever they fuck they want to keep the ‘good samaritan’ image.

White people though will say yo to the next white man, come up together & then branch off into their own successes.

Drake was fuckin wrong, we started from the bottom & we still here. Only way I see it being fixed is riots, people down to sacrifice & go to the throat of power & greed & slit it. This won’t happen though….is it all too far gone?

One more thing – Celebrities are not fuckin Revolutionaries…which I believe you’ve said before too.

Lol Gee, the problem is that Kanye “all you blacks want all the same thing”. I swear there’s no other race that people view as so monochromatic. It’s like blacks don’t realize that we put ourselves into a pigeon hole with our expectations about our culture, its so backwards sometimes. Rather worship someone’s fake ass like Rick Ross because he has that G image, rather than admit they like Childish Gambino cause he’s soft.

I get what you’re saying about Uncle Tom’s, but we make it seem like either your a real nigga or your an Uncle Tom. There’s no middle passage, and there’s little diversity in what it means to be black. It’s a sad state of affairs.

I dunno if yall are old enough to remember Danny Hoch, but I met him like 100 years ago when I lived in NYC. He said “White people are gonna take your culture [black culture] and sell it back to you.”

I think thats where we’re at now with hiphop. We went through it with jazz, Rock & Roll, Blues, etc… It’s just this ongoing fight to have cultural ownership of who and what you are and to be honest Black folk have never totally had that for any real length of time.

Nothing but the truth. Downtown Fort Worth is becoming the same way and I talk with people about it 2 years ago and they said it wouldn’t happen. 8 years from now nobody will remember what downtown looked like or be able to afford to live there.

But to be real, I knew Hiphop was in trouble when Em denied calling Black women bitches and niggers and Benzino dropped the CD of him doing just that and whitefolk decided to give Em a pass cuz “black people say it” and black folk in hiphop decided that Benzino was an asshole and Em was dope so it didn’t matter.

It’s all downhill from here, kiddies. Mackelmore, Lorde, Lily Allen, Miley, etc… they’re all the poster children for “a more authentic, more sophisticated version of hiphop.”

congrats, fellow Negroes. Buckle up, the rest of this ride will be wild.

“Post-black” is problematic wording, but I don’t think it was that serious. I pretty much got the same thing DDrake got. Caramanica’s saying that he’s the first white rapper who’s fan base is not a majority of black people (who just happen to be the majority of people who are into rap). “Race-themed” is just stupid on USA Today’s part.

Comment section looking like y’all about to start a war or some shit. Relax.

I’m down to talk on some shit & see what the people round here think cause it’s evident some people here put thought into shit & to be honest, I was just vibin’ off Black Canseco & Gee more than the write up itself – which is another cool thing about TSS comment sections. They got a life of they own haha

“I think Caramanica’s argument is that Macklemore is a rap act that’s been able to find success outside of the confines of rap radio or rap circles (even though he’s always gotten blog love) (although Will.i.am is still sort of a rapper and reached his pinnacle of fame outside of rap radio) (even though Kid Rock considered himself a rapper)”

…so you’re suggesting Will.i.am was a “post-black” rapper? Not even sure what to say there.

Kid Rock is a good counterpoint to Caramanica’s argument I suppose. Although he ended up leaving rap pretty early on, and his biggest successes were post-hip-hop (as in: country) if I remember correctly.

I don’t know what’s funnier or more ridiculous, that string of words or some of the, I guess, “critical” analysis of the piece. After reading’s David’s piece on Scandal’s, I just can’t be taking everybody seriously LOL

i’m not claiming to be any authority on the issue of race but after reading that statement made about macklemore and then reading some of the comments here that go in the opposite direction completely, i just offer up this advice.

I was just talking to a friend yesterday about how Top 40 plays almost no rap anymore, and all the rap songs that do get play at least have one white person on them. The only exception we could think of was Crooked Smile by J. Cole, and well, that has half a white person on it.